Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

still via Luke Sturgeon/Vimeo

Here's what electromagnetic force field from a laptop looks like

Beautiful, but you might think twice about sitting with your computer directly on your lap.

YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD people say not to sit with a laptop on your stomach or sleep with your phone under your pillow.

We’ve always known our computers and mobile devices give off invisible charges, although it’s unclear what (if any) harm the radiation may cause us. We don’t think about the consequences much because the charges our devices give off are invisible. Out of sight, out of mind

Now Luke Sturgeon and Shamik Ray have made the invisible visible. The designers at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design were tasked with capturing invisible electromagnetic fields surrounding everyday electronics on film. They holed themselves away in a dark, sound-proof room for three days and shot beautiful images of the eerie force fields steaming from devices.

Here’s what the force fields around phones, computers and radios look like:


via Luke Sturgeon/Youtube

- Alyson Shontell

Good news, holidaymakers: Roaming costs will fall from Monday>

Just 5 per cent of people don’t own TVs>

What mobile phones looks like in 1989 – and 8 places to use them>

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Published with permission from
View 29 comments
Close
29 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute royston T justice
    Favourite royston T justice
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 12:24 PM

    I keep my phone in my left pocket, have done since my first phone in the 90′s..
    Jazus I hope my nuts are ok! :D

    88
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chewey Bacca
    Favourite Chewey Bacca
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 12:34 PM

    Watt the Flux

    57
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Angry Atheist
    Favourite Angry Atheist
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 7:14 PM

    Some people purposely expose their skin to the electromagnet radiation given off by a nuclear fusion reaction. Their skin actually changes colour. They call is sunbathing.

    40
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jed I. Knight
    Favourite Jed I. Knight
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 12:38 PM

    Can you just imagine what the emf of a high voltage power line or a 10,000v transformer might look like, or how far it might extend, a lot of people have to live in close proximity to these?

    38
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Murphy
    Favourite Ryan Murphy
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 1:39 PM

    Stick that smartphone of yours up to your ear, and make or take a call. The field strength you experience as a result is many many times stronger than what you are ever likely to experience as a result of electricity distribution, or for that matter radio transmission.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jed I. Knight
    Favourite Jed I. Knight
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 3:08 PM

    Ah but its intermittent, a few minutes at a time. If you live next door to a 10kv transformer you’re getting the effect 24 hours a day, over 30 or 40 years who knows…?

    18
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute john snah
    Favourite john snah
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 7:50 PM

    I found this documentary to be very informing on this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF_rorl5LRQ
    There’s some pretty alarming data about telephone masts and mobiles!

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gary.
    Favourite Gary.
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 1:39 PM

    Just think of what Hertz went through to prove Maxwell’s waves. He spent the best part of a year in a dark room looking through a lens for a 2 cm spark. As Richard Feynman said theory is pointless unless it can be proved experimentally.

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Billy Nomates
    Favourite Billy Nomates
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 12:16 PM

    They are not called Laptops, they have been called Notebooks for more than 5-years

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute BadDrivingIreland
    Favourite BadDrivingIreland
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 12:36 PM

    No wonder you have no mate’s. :-)

    117
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute stephen moore
    Favourite stephen moore
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 12:59 PM

    Laptops and notebooks are two different things. Jackass

    63
    See 7 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Murphy
    Favourite Ryan Murphy
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 1:40 PM

    Thanks for that ill judged (and inaccurate) pedantry!

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Billy Nomates
    Favourite Billy Nomates
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 1:56 PM

    Actually since 2000 a variety of laptop computer manufacturers were getting sued because of problems caused by the utilization of laptops. So companies chose to call the new laptop computer models “notebook computers”, to discourage people from using computers on their laps. They considered that the term notebook computer would encourage users to place the laptop on a table and not their lap.

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conor Foley
    Favourite Conor Foley
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 2:20 PM

    @billy nomates, cos I’m in that kinda mood today, i checked the websites of the top PC manufacturers – Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba & Asus, 4 of the 5 refer to them as laptops only one used the term notebook.

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute stephen moore
    Favourite stephen moore
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 2:23 PM

    If im not mistaken notebook is the name given to the smaller more compact ‘laptops’.

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Billy Nomates
    Favourite Billy Nomates
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 2:39 PM

    @conor that’s correct, for advertising purposes however the product/model name when you purchase it the documentation and packaging will say Dell xxx Notebook not Dell xxx Laptop.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jonathan P McCoy
    Favourite Jonathan P McCoy
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 3:03 PM

    I worked in Dell from 1998 to 2007 and in my time there they were always referred to as notebooks. The stuff going on in that video is not light painting either.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jonathan P McCoy
    Favourite Jonathan P McCoy
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 3:04 PM

    That would be a netbook.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute TheIrishBrain
    Favourite TheIrishBrain
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 12:09 PM

    That can’t be good for the human body.

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sergey Alifanov
    Favourite Sergey Alifanov
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 12:59 PM

    Presumably it’s not harmful. All it does is increase the temperature of some of your body parts by a tiny amount.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seán O'Reilly
    Favourite Seán O'Reilly
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 12:47 PM

    That looks like light painting, a technique where you pass a light source in front of an open aperture with a long exposure time. Not convinced it’s legit.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mr Jingles
    Favourite Mr Jingles
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 12:56 PM

    Yep, light painting. Electromagnetic fields my arse.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jim O'Donnell
    Favourite Jim O'Donnell
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 1:59 PM

    Light painting it is.

    5
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jim O'Donnell
    Favourite Jim O'Donnell
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 2:06 PM

    The stupid dramatic music gives the game away straight away. These guys ought to stick to being artists – this kind of pseudoscience gets my back up.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Murphy
    Favourite Ryan Murphy
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 1:37 PM

    No hard data here whatsoever, just what seems to be vaguely rendered animations. For starters, the em field surrounding the speaker of the radio featured here would be far more uniform that the worm like green yoke that these lads have painted on there.

    As regards the Apple, I’m not sure what the dots and waves are meant to represent either.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Andrea Byrne-Gul
    Favourite Andrea Byrne-Gul
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 5:49 PM

    My husband used to work for Nokia and they were told to carry their phones in their back pockets, as your glutimus maximus shields you to a degree, having it in your front jean/ trouser pockets or breast pockets is not good for your health in the long run.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gavin Scott
    Favourite Gavin Scott
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 1:41 PM

    You should see the flux off a MacBook Air!! Wayyyy sexier…

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lou Brennan
    Favourite Lou Brennan
    Report
    Jul 7th 2013, 6:58 PM

    So that’s what it looks like eh
    I’ve been wondering for years and so have all my neighbours. We were only talking about this the other day, what it looks like and stuff.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patrick Griffen
    Favourite Patrick Griffen
    Report
    Jul 8th 2013, 4:23 AM

    I’m not taking my chances. I use a Defenderpad beneath my laptop. http://www.defenderpad.com
    Studies have already shown that using a laptop on your lap can lower sperm count and damage damage DNA.

    2
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds